Sermons

I used to think that I was an easy child to raise. Looking back I now realize that I was a parent’s nightmare. I’ll give you just one example. I used to always get lost. I was once banned from all school trips for the remainder of the year because I got lost from the group. My mother would take me shopping, and she’d turn around and I’d be gone. That by itself would be annoying. What made it worse is that a few minutes later my mother would hear this announcement in the store: “Would a lost mother please report to the customer service booth.”

I couldn’t seem to get through my head two fundamental rules. One: don’t get lost. When you’re out with your mother, stand by your mother. I also seemed to forget a second important rule: If you get lost, stay in one place. You’re much easier to find then. My mother would continually remind me that I needed to stand firm when lost, and if I did this she would find me before very long.

We’ve been going through Galatians together. Paul says in this passage: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).

There are two parts to what he says here. One is that if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you are free. You’re free from the penalty of sin, from the power of sin, from the law as a system of salvation. You’re free form superstition and from all that enslaves you. John Stott does a good job of explaining what this freedom is all about. It’s not the freedom to do whatever we want. It’s John Stott defines true freedom: "freedom from my silly little self in order to live responsibly in love for God and others.”

Paul says we’re free, and he says this emphatically. He literally says that it’s for freedom that Christ has freed us. Freedom is both the verb and the noun. Jesus’ whole mission was to free us. Paul tells us in the clearest terms that in Jesus Christ we have been freed.

But then he says, “Stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Do you realize that this is one of the most important tasks that we have as followers of Jesus Christ? What is it? To simply stand firm. He’s saying what my mother said to me. Whatever you do, don’t get lost. Don’t wander off, Paul is saying, from the freedom that is yours in Jesus Christ. Stay in one place. One of the biggest tasks in the Christian life is to guard against wandering off from the freedom that has been won for us through the saving work of Jesus Christ. You’re free, emphatically free. Now stand firm in that freedom and don’t wander off.

Paul mentions a specific way that we can tend to wander off. It’s what we’ve been talking about as we’ve worked through the book of Galatians, and we come to it again today. He says at the end of verse 1, “Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” What’s he talking about? In those days, slavery was a very real thing. It’s not the same type of slavery as we think of from North American history, but it was still bad. If you were a slave and then became a free person, you could buy property. You could schedule your own activities. You could earn and spend and live however you wished. It would be unthinkable to return once again to slavery. Yet Paul says that’s exactly what happens when we depart from the freedom we have in Christ.

When Paul talks about the yoke of slavery, he’s talking about the Old Testament law. Paul gets very clear in this passage that the issue the Galatians were facing is circumcision. Some people were teaching that it wasn’t enough to have faith in Christ’s saving work. You also need to keep some of the Old Testament law. In other words, you’re saved by trusting Jesus plus by keeping God’s law.

Think about this for a minute. This doesn’t sound so bad at first. It actually sounds very reasonable when you think about it. In fact, it’s hardwired in our nature. How do you become a Christian? We can all agree that it begins by realizing that you have sinned against God and violated his standards. And we can agree that it involves trusting in what Jesus Christ has done for us: that he lived a perfect life, and that he bore the punishment for our sins at the cross. He took our sins and gave us his righteousness. So far, so good.

But it would also seem reasonable to say that on top of trusting Christ, you also have to contribute something to your salvation. That sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? But do you see what Paul says here? When we do this, we’re doing exactly what I did as the world’s most annoying kid. We’re getting lost. We’re departing from the freedom that Christ has won for us. In fact, we’re allowing ourselves to become enslaved to a yoke of slavery. It’s deadly, and Paul says we can’t let it happen. Tullian Tchividjian says, “It’s not that Christians seek to blatantly replace the gospel. What we try to do is simply add to it.” And this is fatal.

Don’t get me wrong. Paul isn’t saying that it’s wrong to obey Christ. We’re going to see that obeying Christ is essential. What he’s warning us against is thinking that we contribute to our salvation through our obedience. Again, Tchividjian writes, “The most dangerous thing that you can happen to you is that you become proud of your obedience.” Think about that. The most dangerous thing that can happen to you is that you trust in your own obedience rather than in the perfect work of Jesus Christ.

This is so important. Stand firm in your freedom, Paul says. Don’t budge from the freedom you have in Christ.

That’s all fine, and I hope you agree. But Paul doesn’t just leave it there. In the rest of this passage he gives us two ways that we can stand firm in the freedom we have in Christ. Let me give you the two ways, and then let’s look at each of them. Stand firm in your freedom by realizing what’s at stake, and by rejecting those who want to enslave you.

First: Stand firm in your freedom by realizing what’s at stake.

I’m reading a book right now about an expedition to the top of Everest that went horribly wrong. In ordinary life, you can take some wrong steps and things don’t go too badly. On the top of Everest they realize what’s at stake with every step they take. One wrong step, one careless move, and you could be killed, and you can take some people with you too. There’s a lot at stake when you take one wrong step at the top of Everest.

In this passage, Paul wants us to realize what’s at stake when we take a “Jesus + something else = acceptance with God” understanding of the gospel. What’s at stake? Three things:

Christ and his work will be of no value to us. Read verse 2: “Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.” This is shocking. If we trust in Christ plus our own obedience, we lose all the benefits of trusting in Christ. This is not a minor issue. The story that helps me understand this is that of a man who got a baseball autographed by Babe Ruth. The man realized that the signed baseball might be valuable, so he decided to sell it. But he was worried because he could see that the signature on the baseball was faded. He decided to try to make that autograph clearer, so he took out that baseball and carefully traced over the letters with a marking pen: “BABE RUTH.” By trying to add to what Babe Ruth had done, he destroyed what Babe Ruth had done. By the time he had finished, he’d taken something priceless and turned it into something worthless.”

That’s exactly what we do to Jesus’ work when we try to add to it. “His finished work cannot be refinished; it can only be destroyed” (Phil Ryken). As the Puritan William Perkins said, “He must be a perfect Savior, or he is no Savior.” It’s either Jesus Christ in his perfection or our own works. There is no middle ground. If we trust in our own obedience, we deface the work of Christ. Jesus and his gospel will be of no value to us.

We become debtors to God’s entire law. Verse 3 says, “I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.” Let me try to explain what he’s saying here. I have a thing for mustard. For instance, I love the hot and sweet mustard that comes with Hickory Farm gift boxes. The problem is that you can’t buy that mustard unless you buy a gift box. You can buy the mustard, but you can’t buy it by itself. It’s a package deal.

That’s what Paul is saying here. You can’t pick and choose from the law and add a bit of obedience. It’s a package deal. Once you try to pick up a bit of the law, you have to pick up the whole thing. You can’t pick and choose.

The problem is that if you pick up God’s law, you become a debtor. Gamaliel II was an old Jewish rabbi who lived around the time Galatians was written. One day he was reading Ezekiel, which talks about a man who “is righteous and does what is just and right” (Ezekiel 18:5). When he finished reading, he began to cry, saying, “Only he who keeps all these requirements will live, not he who keeps only one of them.” He realized that he could never meet the perfect standard of obedience required in God’s law.

The minute you begin to rely on your obedience, you become obligated to keep the entirety of God’s law. The problem is that nobody, except for Jesus Christ, can keep God’s law. So we become hopeless. We become debtors to God’s law with no hope of repayment.

We're cut off from the grace of Christ. Verse 4 says, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” If you try to justify yourself before God based on your own obedience, then you cut yourself off from God’s grace.

Why is this? Because grace and self-justification are mutually exclusive. You have to choose. The minute you try to accomplish your own salvation, you’re removing yourself from the grace and mercy of Christ.

What’s the alternative? Galatians 5:5-6 says:

For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

This is what it means to follow Christ. Instead of relying on our own obedience, we wait for God to give us righteousness by faith. It means looking to Christ instead of to ourselves. We’re waiting for God’s final verdict of righteousness on the last day. One day God will appear and declare us righteous based on the finished work of Jesus Christ. That is a whole lot better than relying on our own righteousness! This is really what matters. The issue isn’t circumcision or keeping the law; the issue is whether our faith is in Jesus Christ rather than in ourselves.

This is how you stand firm in your freedom: you realize what’s at stake. This is an Everest issue. When you take a step away from the freedom that’s yours in Christ, you’re taking a step that could be spiritually fatal. When you say that it’s Jesus plus something, then Christ is of no value, you become a debtor to the entire law, and you’re cut off from the grace of Christ. One of the ways that we stand firm in our freedom is to realize what’s at stake if we don’t.

So get clear on this. Realize that this is not a minor issue. Stand firm in your freedom because you realize what’s at stake if you don’t.

Second: Stand firm in your freedom by rejecting those who want to enslave you.

Read verses 7 to 12 with me:

You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

Paul doesn’t mince words here. He speaks very clearly of the danger that comes from people who teach what God doesn’t. This teaching doesn’t come from God, Paul says. “This persuasion is not from him who calls you.” And it’s dangerous. There are four problems with these people:

They're meddlers - Paul uses the image of someone who cuts you off in a race. The Galatians were running well; these false teachers have cut in and tripped them up, and now they’re in danger of being disqualified.

They contaminate the gospel - Paul uses the example of leaven. Bread doesn’t rise unless it has yeast. It only takes a little yeast to do the job. Paul here is saying that it only takes a pinch of law to thoroughly contaminate the gospel. This is why doctrine is so important. It only takes a little bit of heresy to do a lot of damage.

They misrepresent Paul - They seem to be misrepresenting Paul, saying that he teaches circumcision as well. Paul challenges this and says that nothing could be further from the truth.

The good news is that Paul says they won’t succeed. “I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view,” he says. But in the meantime, these people are causing all kinds of problems.

There is great danger in believing what is not true about God and his gospel. A lot of difficulties in the Christian life come from not believing what’s true about God and his gospel. Paul is clear that we will continue to face false teachers. We have to take this seriously. One of the ways that we can stand firm in the faith is to reject anyone who tries to pull us away from the truth of the gospel.

A.W. Pink once wrote, “The great mistake made by people is hoping to discover in themselves what is to be found in Christ alone.” Don’t ever let anyone lead you to look away from Christ to look at yourself. Look at what he has done. He is our only hope for freedom.

In the last days of the Civil War, the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia, fell to the Union army. Abraham Lincoln insisted on visiting the city. Even though no one knew he was coming, slaves recognized him immediately and thronged around him. He had liberated them by the Emancipation Proclamation, and now Lincoln's army had set them free. According to Admiral David Porter, an eyewitness, Lincoln spoke to the throng around him:

"My poor friends, you are free—free as air. You can cast off the name of slave and trample upon it …. Liberty is your birthright."

In a similar way, Paul says, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

Stand firm in your freedom by realizing what’s at stake, and by rejecting those who want to enslave you.

Darryl Dash is a graduate of the University of Waterloo, Heritage Theological Seminary, and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He’s married to Charlene, and has two children, Christina and Josiah.
Darryl is currently planting Liberty Grace Church in Liberty Village, Toronto. He previously served as pastor of Richview Baptist Church and Park Lawn Baptist Church, both in west Toronto.

Just when you think you’re through the hardest part of Galatians, you get to what someone says is one of the most difficult passages not just in Galatians, but in the New Testament! This is a difficult passage for a lot of reasons:

It’s sordid.

Paul’s interpretation raises all kinds of interpretive issues.

It seems somewhat harsh.

It’s foreign to us, and it really seems to be far removed from the way we think.

As a result there have been all kinds of studies done on this passage. People read it and get kind of confused. And it’s easy to miss the main point of this passage because we get caught up in all the details, so that we miss the point.

But I want to most of these issues today. What I want to do is this: I want to tell you a story. Then I want to tell you why this story matters to us. And then I want to tell you how this story prepares us for communion this morning, which we’re going to celebrate together right after the sermon.

So first, let me tell you a story.

So here’s the story. But I need to warn you that it is one of the most troubling stories found in the entire Bible. There are worse stories, but this one definitely rates up there somewhere.

God had promised Abram:

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

When God made this promise to Abram, Abram was 75 years old, and his wife Sarai was just a little bit younger by about ten years (Genesis 17:17). You don’t start a family when you’re 65 and 75 years old! But God had made this promise. And he repeated it later. In Genesis 15 Abram was starting to doubt this promise. He said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless…” and God answered, “Your very own son shall be your heir” (Genesis 15:2-4). But years went by. Ten years later there were still no children. Picture if I was childless. Picture that I waited another 40 years, and that you talked to me one day. You ask me if I have children, and I say, “No, but any day now I expect that my wife and I are going to start a family.” It’s hard not to see that Abram was beginning to wonder how God’s promise was going to be fulfilled with the clock ticking, and with no discernible progress even though a decade had gone by.

They say that God helps those who help themselves, so at the age of 85, that’s exactly what Abram did. In those days there’s evidence that it was sometimes customary to use a surrogate mother. Abram was 85, but that’s not too old to be a father. So Sarai arranged for her servant Hagar to bear a child on her behalf. Abram basically says, “I’m going to help God out by taking matters into my own hands. I’m going to make my own contribution to God’s promises.” The result, of course, is disaster. Abram married Hagar. Hagar bore him a child. Sarai hated it and treated Hagar harshly, and Hagar ran for her life with her son Ishmael.

Later on - about 15 years later - Sarai does indeed have a child. We read in Genesis 21:

The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. (Genesis 21:1-3)

So you have these two children with a lot in common:

Both are sons of Abraham. They both had the same biological father.

Both were circumcised.

Both grew up in the same home.

But there were some pretty big differences between these two children as well:

One was the result of human scheming; the other was the result of God fulfilling his promise.

One was born a slave because his mother was a slave; the other was born free, the heir of a free woman.

You have this really weird story of two sons. It’s a very disturbing story with all kinds of hurt and family dysfunction. It reminds us, by the way, that the Bible is not full of great stories of great people who earned God’s approval because of their greatness. It’s a record of broken people who messed up repeatedly and are recipients of God’s great grace.

So that’s the story. Now I want to ask:

What does this story mean for us?

If you remember, Paul is writing in Galatians about what it means to be accepted by God. Some were teaching that you need Jesus plus your own obedience in order for God to accept you. Paul was arguing that acceptance by God requires Jesus plus nothing else. Every time you add to the gospel, Paul says, you subtract from it. You destroy it.

Why does Paul bring up this ugly story from Abraham’s life? One of the big issues that Paul is dealing with is that some were teaching that you have to keep Old Testament rules and regulations to be accepted by God. Only by keeping God’s law could you be considered one of Abraham’s offspring. So you see this come up over and over again in Galatians. Paul keeps dealing with the question of who is a true child of Abraham. In other words, who is it that is fully accepted by God? In the passage we have before us, he uses a form of argument that would have been used by rabbis in his time. In other words, Paul uses the argument being advanced by his opponents and turns it on his head. In doing so, he shows us that the story of Abraham’s two sons has a much greater meaning for us as well.

What Paul shows us is that there are two ways to relate to God. He’s been telling us about these two ways all the way through Galatians. One is Jesus plus nothing. The other is Jesus plus something else. In this passage he tells us that these two ways can be understood through the story of Ishmael and Isaac. These two sons show us two ways to relate to God, and what happens depending on which we choose.

One way relies on the flesh; one relies on the promise (Galatians 4:23). These two sons are perfect examples of the two ways we relate to God. Both ways have the same end in mind. Both want the blessings that God has promised. One way is to take matters into our own hands. Abraham decided he would help God out by relying on his own efforts to accomplish God’s purpose, and the result was disaster. Paul says that this is a good example of what happens when we rely on our own efforts to win acceptance with God. It’s really no different than when Abraham took Hagar as his wife so that he could create his own heir. It wasn’t what God had in mind, and it didn’t accomplish the purpose that God intended.

On the other hand, Isaac represents the other way to relate to God: to rely on what only God can do; to realize that we have nothing to offer God but our inadequacy. All that Abraham and Sarah had to offer God were old bodies that were far beyond their ability to produce the life that was promised to them. It was impossible. There was nothing in them that was capable of producing life. And that’s exactly the way that God designed it. Ishmael represents what we can do on our own efforts, and it’s a mess; Isaac represents what only God can do by his grace, and it’s amazing.

One way is slavery; the other way is freedom (Galatians 4:25-26). Paul actually says that the two ways of relating to God are also represented by the two sons. Both Ishmael and Isaac had the same father. But Ishmael was born to a woman who was a slave, and so he was born into slavery. Paul says that is exactly what happens when we try to add to what Jesus has done through our own efforts. We become slaves. We take things into our own hands, but what we produce is enslaved because we are enslaved. So we never get the freedom that we long for.

This is the irony of those who try to earn God’s approval through their own efforts. No matter how hard you work, you’re still enslaved. You never know whether you’ve done enough. You’re always left wondering if you’ve obeyed enough or whether you’ve repented enough. You’re never quite sure if you’ve measured up to God’s expectations. You’re enslaved. Whenever you think you need to earn your standing with God, you end up enslaved just like Ishmael. You never taste the freedom that God intends.

But that’s not the way it is with Isaac. Isaac was born into freedom. He was the result of only what God could do. Paul is saying that when we rely on God’s gracious gift of salvation through Jesus Christ alone, we are spiritually born into that same freedom. There’s no going back. It’s much better than Ishmael’s situation. When we receive God’s gracious gift of salvation, we receive a freedom that can’t be taken away.

We also see that there’s hostility between these two ways (Galatians 4:29-30). This is so important. What do we see here? Ishmael couldn’t stand Isaac. He persecuted Isaac because he couldn’t stand that Isaac had freedom when he didn’t. Paul said that this is just like today. People who are trying to earn God’s approval through their own efforts can’t stand all this talk about grace. It makes them angry. That’s what was happening with the Galatians, and it’s happening today. Grace sounds outrageous, and it makes people angry. It especially makes people angry who are adding something to Jesus. They can’t stand people who rely only on Christ and nothing else.

But it goes both ways. Paul says that Ishmael has to be kicked out because Ishmael isn’t compatible with Isaac. Do you see what he’s saying? He’s saying that this has to be dealt with. You can’t permit people to stay in a church and teach that you need Jesus plus something else in order to be accepted by God.

But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” (Galatians 4:30)

You can’t have a church that teaches both. Isaac and Ishmael are incompatible with each other. You can’t have a church that preaches and denies the gospel at the same time. Grace and legalism are hostile to each other. They’re like oil and water.

Paul is pulling out all of the stops to tell us that there are two ways to relate to God. One is through our own efforts. But this makes a mess of things, and it leaves us enslaved and hating grace. The other way is to realize that we can’t do anything to contribute to what God has promised. We have nothing to offer God but our inability. And God chooses to keep his promises to people like this by fulfilling his promise as a gracious gift. And this way leads to freedom, and there’s nothing like this.

I have three applications for us as we come to the end of this sermon.

First, realize why Paul is saying this. There’s a story that’s been told numerous times of the great Reformer, Martin Luther. In the church that he was pastoring, preached the gospel to his congregation, week after week after week after week. His people wondered why they couldn’t move on. Surely we get the Gospel by now, Pastor! Why do you keep preaching the gospel every week? His answer: “Because every week, you forget it.”

We never move beyond the gospel because the gospel is what saves us. It’s not just the beginning of the Christian life; it’s the middle and the end as well. That’s why Paul keeps circling back and reminding us of the gospel. He uses every tool in his disposal to help us see the gospel and its beauty as opposed to trying to earn our standing with God on our own. All we bring to God is inability; he gives us everything we need as a gift through Jesus Christ.

For it is written,
“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!
For the children of the desolate one will be more
than those of the one who has a husband.”
(Galatians 4:27)

This is the upside-down nature of the gospel. Those who are barren, like Sarah, those who have nothing but need, receive all that God has promised. Sarah was barren. There was no way that she could produce the child that had been promised to her. But God kept his promise. In Isaiah’s time, Isaiah was prophesying that Israel would return from its barrenness and flourish once again. And now Paul is writing to Gentiles who had nothing to offer, and he’s saying that it’s just like God to give everything to those who have nothing. If you come empty-handed this morning, with nothing to offer to God but your need, then you’re in a good position to receive the blessings of the gospel found in Christ.

Finally, heed the warning of Galatians 5:1. “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” This is the whole reason that Paul wrote. Don’t ever go back to trying to earn your acceptance with God through your own effort. Embrace the freedom that is yours in the gospel, and never look back.

We’re not saved by what we do; we’re saved by relying on what only God can do. Anything else is slavery.

Darryl Dash is a graduate of the University of Waterloo, Heritage Theological Seminary, and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He’s married to Charlene, and has two children, Christina and Josiah.
Darryl is currently planting Liberty Grace Church in Liberty Village, Toronto. He previously served as pastor of Richview Baptist Church and Park Lawn Baptist Church, both in west Toronto.

If you went to the Clarke’s house, you would meet their dog Shadow. You would quickly come to realize that Shadow is a people-dog. Shadow is very happy to see you when you go to visit. If you ever feel that nobody cares about you, you should go visit their house, because you will quickly realize that this dog doesn’t even know you, but still thinks the world of you.

But one night last week, Jonathan came home late. And that evening, Shadow was anything but welcoming. Shadow sounded the alarm that somebody was coming up the driveway, and let the whole household know.

Question: Why did Shadow sound the alarm? What happened to Shadow’s friendliness?

Parallel question: We’ve been in Galatians, and Paul is clearly agitated. You’ll remember that the issue is what it takes to be accepted by God. Paul is saying that it’s Jesus plus nothing. Others are saying that it’s Jesus plus something else. It doesn’t take long to realize that Paul is agitated over this issue. He basically says that he’s ready to beat up an angel who preaches that we need Jesus plus anything else to be saved. So here’s the question: Why is Paul sounding the alarm? This morning’s passage gets to the heart of this question. And it’s important because we’re going to see why we need to sound the alarm as well whenever the gospel is lost, whenever anyone adds anything to Jesus in order to find acceptance with God.

So here’s the big idea. I’ll give it to you and then we’ll unpack it. Sound the gospel alarm because of what’s at stake, and because of love.

First: Sound the gospel alarm because of what’s at stake.

Look at verses 8 to 11:

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

In these few verses Paul tells us what’s at stake. This is so important for us to see, because we don’t easily see what’s at risk when we add something to Jesus in order to be accepted by God. So Paul gives us three pictures in these verses. He gives us a picture of what we’re like before Christ. Then he gives us a picture of what we’re like when we trust Christ. Then he gives us a picture of what we’re like when we add something to Christ in order to be accepted.

Before Christ - Paul says, “Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.” This is a very insightful description. Paul says that before Christ, we’re enslaved to false gods. He’s talking about their pagan idol-worship. He doesn’t name their false gods, but they would have known the various gods worshiped in the temples. But Paul says something radical. Worshiping anyone or anything other than God through Christ is slavery. He says in 1 Corinthians 10:20:

No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. (1 Corinthians 10:20)

This is our before picture. We’re all by nature worshipers. We’re hardwired to attribute ultimate worth to someone or something bigger than ourselves. It could be a religion. It could be anything: a hobby, a political system, a philosophy, a sport, a job. Everyone worships someone or something bigger than themselves and looks for ultimate meaning.

Paul says that two things are true about all of our worship before we come to Christ. First: it’s demonic. That’s shocking, but think about it. The demons know we’re built to worship, and they’re delighted if we worship anyone or anything other than Christ. They really don’t care what it is as long as it’s not God. Second: it’s enslaving. Whatever we worship other than God will enslave us. Tim Keller says, “If anything but Jesus is a requirement for being happy or worthy, that thing will become our slavemaster.” David Powlison puts it like this:

“[Your] idols define good and evil in ways contrary to God's definitions. [They spin out a whole false belief system.] They establish a locus of control that is earth-bound: either in objects (e.g. lust for money), other people (e.g.‘I need to please my father’), or myself (e.g. attainment of my personal goals). Such false gods create false laws, false definitions of success and failure, of values and stigma. Idols promise blessings and warn of curses for those who succeed or fail [their standards]. ‘If I [make enough money], I will be secure. If I can get these certain people to like and respect me, then my life will be valid.’....”

Let’s just pause here because this is so important. This is the picture of everyone who does not know Jesus Christ. We’re all worshipers. We all look to someone or something other than God for our ultimate meaning. And we’re all enslaved to whatever that is. The demons love for us to worship, as long as we’re worshiping someone or something other than God.

When we trust Christ - But then Paul gives us a picture of what happens when we come to know the power of the gospel. He says, “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God…” Before, we didn’t know God. When we heard the gospel, we came to know God. Know doesn’t mean just head knowledge. It means to know personally and relationally. It’s the knowledge that comes from friendship, not from reading a set of facts.

But I love what Paul says here. He does say we came to know God, but then he stops himself and says, “or rather to be known by God.” This reminds me of the ending of Tim Keller’s excellent book The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. A woman prayed “God, help me find you,” but she never seem to get anywhere. One day a friend told her to try praying, “God, come and find me.” And he did. God finds us more than we find him. Before we ever knew God, God knew us. God chose us. We became the objects of his love. We know God because God knew us first. He loves us and graciously chose us to be his own.

So that’s the before picture: enslaved to false gods. Then we have the gospel picture: knowing God because he first knew us. Then we have one more picture.

When we add something to Christ - He writes, “…how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?” Don’t miss what Paul is saying here. Paul is saying that adding anything to Jesus in order to be accepted by God is another form of idol-worship. This is shocking! Trying to earn God’s approval by our own efforts is no better than paganism. Justification by works is just as demonic and enslaving as idol-worship.

What Paul is saying is that there are two ways to be lost. There are two ways to reject God, and the demons are happy with either one. One way to reject God is to worship idols and look for our ultimate meaning and satisfaction in anything other than God. The other way to be lost and enslaved is to be religious and to base our acceptance on anything other than Jesus.

Do you see what Paul is saying? He’s saying that there are a lot of people who think they’re Christians who are no better off than idol-worshipers. He’s saying that the demons are quite happy if we come to church and read our Bibles and be really good people, as long as we’re basing our acceptance on our good behavior rather than on the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ. It’s demonic and it’s enslaving, and the demons are thrilled with this version of Christianity. Nobody’s put it better than Michael Horton:

What would things look like if Satan actually took over a city? The first frames in our imaginative slide show probably depict mayhem on a massive scale: Widespread violence, deviant sexualities, pornography in every vending machine, churches closed down and worshipers dragged off to City Hall. Over a half-century ago, Donald Grey Barnhouse, pastor of Philadelphia's Tenth Presbyterian Church, gave his CBS radio audience a different picture of what it would look like if Satan took control of a town in America. He said that all of the bars and pool halls would be closed, pornography banished, pristine streets and sidewalks would be occupied by tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no swearing. The kids would answer 'Yes, sir,' 'No, ma'am,' and the churches would be full on Sunday ... where Christ is not preached.

Do you see what’s at stake? We’re in danger of embracing something that looks like Christianity but is basically just a Christian version of paganism. Why should we sound the gospel alarm? Because when we get fuzzy on the gospel, when we begin to trust our own performance, when we lose sight of the cross, it’s actually more dangerous than when we were pagans because we don’t even realize what’s going on.

Paul is saying that there are two ways to be demonically enslaved. One is to reject Christ and Christianity and find ultimate meaning in worshiping something or someone else. But the other way is to attend church and sing hymns and worship God but trust in something other than Christ in order to be accepted by God. If you do this, you’re just as lost, and the demons are just as happy.

There’s only one way to avoid being demonically enslaved: to put your hope in Jesus and nothing else for your salvation; to look to Christ and the cross as your only hope. This is why Paul sounds the alarm. There’s so much at stake. It’s why we have to sound the alarm as well.

There’s a second reason why we need to sound the gospel alarm.

Second: Sound the gospel alarm out of love.

The next few verses are some of the most intimate and painful verses to read in all of Paul’s writings. In these next verses Paul sound the alarm not just because of what’s at stake; he sounds the alarm because he loves the Galatians. We see that one of the reasons we need to speak up is because he loves the Galatians and he wants them to experience the gospel in all its dimensions.

To go back to Shadow: it’s sometimes hard to see much love in a bark. A bark can be annoying. That’s why they sell bark collars. People get tired of hearing dogs bark. When we first moved into our current house, the dog next door would sometimes bark well into the night. We repeated a phrase when we heard the dog bark a lot: Shoot the dog. We never did, but we seriously thought about it. Barking isn’t always welcome, and it’s hard to see much love in a bark. It’s the same with Paul. Paul has raised the alarm, and it may have been hard at first to see Paul’s heart. But in this passage he opens his heart, and we see nothing but love. Love is the reason that Paul is so concerned about the Galatians losing the gospel.

You see Paul’s love for the Galatians in three ways in this passage. You actually get a beautiful picture of what ministry is like from this passage. It applies whether you’re a pastor or a youth leader or a Sunday school teacher.

Ministry involves entering people’s worlds. “Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are” (Galatians 4:12). Paul was a Jew, a Pharisee. He was very committed to the law. But the Galatians were Gentiles. To reach them, Paul became as they were, free from the Mosaic law. Paul, even though he was Jewish, became like a Gentile, and now he’s amazed that they as Gentiles are trying to live like Jews. But here you see the lengths to which Paul was prepared to go to reach them. He entered their world and lived in it. You can’t minister from a distance. You need to get close enough and enter into their lives.

Ministry involves reciprocity. You see in verses 13 to 15 that the relationship became a mutual one. The Galatians received Paul and cared for him. They were prepared to sacrifice for him. They loved him. They welcomed him with joy, and his presence gave them a blessing. You see that. Ministry is highly relational. Not only did Paul serve the Galatians, but the Galatians also served him.

Ministry involves anguish. You see this in verses 16 to 20. The false teachers wanted to benefit from the Galatians so that they could receive flattery in return. When you need someone to need you, then you can’t give them what they really need. In contrast, Paul was willing to give the Galatians what they need even if caused him anguish — and it did. In verse 19, he compares what he’s feeling with the anguish of childbirth. Paul, a man, compares himself to a mother who’s giving birth to them for the second time. I’m certain that most mothers here would say that one birth per child is about all that you can take. As wonderful as your children are, you don’t want to give birth to any one of them more than once. But Paul’s saying that it’s almost like going back to the beginning, going through all that pain again. He finds himself in anguish and perplexed because of what is going on.

I like what somebody said about writing. Writing is simple; you just open a vein and bleed. The same is true about parenting. It’s incredibly simple. You just have a child and then devote the next 40 or so years of your life sacrificing everything for them. Simple. Paul would say the same thing about ministry. All that it takes is entering their world, loving and being loved, and being in anguish for their sakes.

Paul is concerned because of what’s at stake, but he’s also concerned because he loves them. Paul wants the best for them. I’m glad that he included this part of the letter because it gives us a window into his heart.

I’m glad this passage came up, because it really gets to the heart of why I wanted us to look at Galatians this Fall. This passage really gets at the heart of why we’re spending so much time going through this book.

First, there’s so much at stake. I hope you see the importance of the gospel. I hope you understand that there are two ways to be lost. One is to reject the Christ and the gospel. The other is to appear to accept it, but then to add to Christ. Both are demonic. Both lead to enslavement. The devil is delighted with both. I hope you are seeing that the gospel is different from either option. Whenever you add anything to Jesus, you subtract from him. I hope you are getting the importance of the gospel, which is that Jesus has done everything necessary for us to be right with God. He is the only basis of our acceptance with God.

Second, I hope you know how much I love you. That’s my concern. I’ve been here 13 years. What Paul says, I think I can say. We have a history. I’ve sacrificed for you; you’ve sacrificed for me. I’ve been in anguish many times over you. That’s why I care.

If you want to know why I’m barking mad about the gospel, those are the two reasons why. I’m sounding the gospel alarm because of what’s at stake, and because of love.

Darryl Dash is a graduate of the University of Waterloo, Heritage Theological Seminary, and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He’s married to Charlene, and has two children, Christina and Josiah.
Darryl is currently planting Liberty Grace Church in Liberty Village, Toronto. He previously served as pastor of Richview Baptist Church and Park Lawn Baptist Church, both in west Toronto.

DASH/HOUSE

This blog exists to explore some of the ways that Jesus changes everything. It provides resources and articles that will help you think about the ways that Jesus can change every part of your life.

The Lord himself invites you to a conference concerning your immediate and endless happiness, and He would not have done this if He did not mean well toward you. Do not refuse the Lord Jesus who knocks at your door; for He knocks with a hand which was nailed to the tree for such as you are. Since His only and sole object is your good, incline your ear and come to Him. Hearken diligently, and let the good word sink into your soul. (C.H. Spurgeon, All of Grace)